I would encourage them to look on craigslist and ebay for the items they need to set up the tank. I got a 2.5 gallon tank on ebay for $18 that had barely been used. The same tank costs $40 in the store. I also got a gravel vac for $2.50 off ebay. After the inital set-up, fish keeping is pretty inexpensive.

IMHO, water changes are the best prevention not medicine per ce. You can prevent a disease (and prevention is indeed the best defense) but there comes a time where medical care is unavoidable, and that means you need to either plan ahead or be ready for added expenses (unless you have access to natural resources, which sadly not all do). Plus you need some expenses for adjustments and that means softeners, anti stress, salts, test kits etc etc all that adds.

My opinion is no and i will elaborate with a paradigm that doesnt involve bettas. I have 2 canaries one male one female in dif cages.

Initial costs aside (about 50 euro for the both of them including cages the female been a purchase new branches, food and feeders) it costs 5 euro monthly to provide food,water fruit and clean the cage. Now you will say 5 euros is much? No it isnt. That is until something not in the plan occurs.

I had the male been attacked by a hawk severing 3 of its toes. I thought the guy would die on me. I got him to the doc for two visits and medication and folding his remaining fingers in casts in order to place them in the right position because they were mauled. All that would cost me around 100 euros but the doc been a good guy let me pay only half the expenses (i am unemployed and for once someone cared).
100 euros which ofc i would give but it would have cost me delaying bills taxes and so on.

A betta's initial costs are around 10-30 euro but if something goes awry you might need to waste triple that amount in equipment (medical tanks, better food, medicine, salts and the list goes on). So its not so dif from the example above.

In conclusion my opinion is this: It is affordable to have an animal and care for it in a daily basis but if you really care for it you need to be ready to spend more in case of emergency. If an owner for whatever reason cant afford that it is better not to have an animal. Especially if your income depends on others (i.e. teens for example) and the one responsible for your income has the altitude: its just a fish/bird whatever.
This becomes even worse for bettas since they cost next to nothing to purchase and most people see them as expendable.

I would encourage them to look on craigslist and ebay for the items they need to set up the tank. I got a 2.5 gallon tank on ebay for $18 that had barely been used. The same tank costs $40 in the store. I also got a gravel vac for $2.50 off ebay. After the inital set-up, fish keeping is pretty inexpensive.

Your guess is as good as mine what does a hawk do in a city. I have heard though that there are certain pps around here that have them as pets and release them to hunt and they return home. Dont know if it is true or not though.

I had cats for years. They didn't cost so much. But then I moved to a city, later lost my job, and twice one of the 2 cats got sick. The estimate for one cat was $3700 for a couple days and I could not get approved for that amount, so they put her down. Another friend had her cat need surgery and it cost her also somewhere around $3500, later it cost another $500.

My point is that now that I have no cats, I will not get another one because I am not rich enough to pay for the worst case scenerio, even though I see those heartbreaking ads on tv to go adopt a cat or dog that needs a home. Since animal pet insurance also does not cover pre-existing conditions, insurance is really no "insurance" that nothing bad will happen either.

But with bettas, I can pay for the worst case scenerio. Now, if you're a high school or middle school kid and your parents aren't exactly "animal people", then maybe one betta and one aquarium kit with a heater and meds and food should definitely be your limit, unless you have a job for your hobby.

Sorry for the long-winded response!

By the way, if I ever move I would love to give away some betta things to young people who know how to take care of a betta but maybe don't have funds. Wonder how I could do that locally?

Also - should people get another betta if they can't give it a full 5 gallon tank or more? Or is it ok to get another one and give it less, considering that so many bettas probably don't ever get adopted?

Your guess is as good as mine what does a hawk do in a city. I have heard though that there are certain pps around here that have them as pets and release them to hunt and they return home. Dont know if it is true or not though.

When I had the 5 boys, they werehappya dn active in their 1 gallon tanks, and interacted with me a lot.

This was from 2004-2008.

Prana doesn't like to swim as much as Qi does, though she wiggles and interacts. I think she'd be fine in 1 gallon.

Qi is more exploratory and would probably love a 10 all to herself as long as I gave her enough attention!

I agree regarding fish personality and tank size. It also depends on the dedication of the individual. If one is willing to do the daily water chanes to keep the tank in optimum conditions then go for it. It's easier to find a place for several 1 and 2 g tanks than it is for a 10 or 20 g. My Freyja loves exploring whereas my HM kinda likes to chill out and soak it all in so to speak.

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